Rise Again
by Oblivious Princess
Summary: An alternate season eight that I started writing in the time between season seven and eight because I had abstinence okay? I can't come up with anything else to write so I'll be trying to post a new chapter with every twentieth review. T because of violence and possibly language. I can't really remember. Title feels stupid but I couldn't come up with anything else.
1. Alone

"You are well and truly alone."

And with those final words, Crowley was gone, along with his demons and Kevin. Sam was left alone in the cruelly silent room.

He should've been angry. He should've been screaming and shouting and tearing down the walls over what had just transpired. _Couldn't the universe ever let them catch a break?_ But he didn't. Instead he looked around the room, unable to believe what he had just heard.

Dean was gone. So was Castiel, and Crowley was right. The thought was so overwhelming that he felt tears welling up in his eyes. He was alone.

He needed to get out of here.

Stumbling over his own feet several times, Sam fled the SucroCorp labs. He stopped for a moment outside the door, remembering his promise to Kevin to destroy the labs. People would be in danger if he didn't.

Blinking to keep the tears at bay, Sam went inside again and started rummaging through the shelves for something – anything – flammable enough to do significant damage. He found several containers of cleaning solution with warning labels of fires on them, and it wasn't long before he had doused the room and all the shelves in various liquids.

He knew that it would not explode, but it was effective enough.

Walking to the door again and looking back, he tried in vain to gather his thoughts beyond _Dean is gone _and _have to light it _as he rummaged through his pockets for his lighter. He flicked it on and tossed it into the middle of the room. The effect was instantaneous.

As though he had just set fire to a puddle of gasoline, the liquids on the ground sprung up into flames and Sam had to hurry out of the room as the fire quickly spread, swallowing up everything Dick and the other Leviathan had ever worked for. It was a small victory, considering.

Sam was running now; running as fast as he could in order to get out of the building before a Leviathan spotted him or the fire spread too far. Behind him, Leviathan disguised as people were all looking out through their doors, feeling the loss of their leader and rapidly falling into panic at the revelation that they were now without purpose. Some were screaming in despair, others mumbling in confusion. Sam jumped over a security guard who had actually sunk to the ground, clutching at his head and yelling. Sam didn't notice any of it.

The Impala was still parked in the frame of what had once been the SucroCorp logo sign. It was relatively unharmed, save for a few scratches here and there from the crash. Meg was nowhere to be seen.

Sam knew that she would have gotten out and that he didn't have time to look for her if she hadn't, so he quickly folded himself into the front seat, glad that she had been considerate enough to leave the keys still in. The motor revved to life and Sam backed out of the SucroCorp front yard as fast as Meg had driven in.

It wasn't until he had gotten out on the road that the urge to cry became too strong.

* * *

Purgatory.

He was in Purgatory.

Well now he had certainly been everywhere.

Dean flinched as he heard the rustle of bushes and scanned the area for any immediate threat. This was where monsters went to die, and damn him if there weren't at least a few billions there by now, the place having been around since the dawn of time.

He didn't know what he had expected when he realized that he was going to be stuck in Purgatory. The visions he still sometimes had of Hell gave him an incentive to not want to go anywhere other than Earth ever again, but he had not expected a forest. Trees stood tall and unflinching above him, showing off strength he knew he didn't have at this point. The leaves were green and the earth brown, but there was something bleak about the colors. Nothing looked real enough that he could imagine being back on Earth.

Nothing more moved. That fact was of no comfort to him.

Dean looked back at the spot where his angel friend had been standing a moment before. "Cas?"

No one answered.

"Cas!" He risked raising his voice. "You son of a bitch! Don't you dare leave me here!"

Several more seconds passed without an answer, and Dean flinched again as something growled behind him. It was a low sound, probably from something small but no doubt just as lethal as everything else down here. Dean reached into his jacket and fingered a machete stuffed into his breast pocket. He had a small silver knife in his boot as well. Somehow he doubted any of them would be able to save him but there was no use in rolling over and taking it. Besides, what would happen if he died down here?

He waited a few tense moments, listening for anything that might attack. His whole body was tense with anticipation and fear.

"Dean?"

He sprung like Jack in the Box, quickly turning around and slashing at whatever was behind him. There was a wet _squelch_ at the metal pierced skin but he didn't feel any clawed retaliation.

Instead Castiel eyed him as if he was a child whose toy Dean had just taken away.

"Dean, what are you doing?" He asked calmly, as if there wasn't a metal blade lodged in his heart. Dean, high on adrenaline and too shocked to let go of the machete, simply stood there with one hand on Cas' shoulder as he tried to process the situation. Cas waited patiently and watched in fascination as blood dripped from the wound and Dean leaned his head down to take a few deep breaths.

Satisfied that his heart was still working, he let go of the blade and left it there as he straightened up. He pinned Cas with a look of annoyance that Sammy would have been proud of..

"Where the hell have you been? You scared the crap out of me!"

"Sorry Dean." And now Cas looked apologetic and there was something _so wrong _with this picture. Cas reached up to slowly pull out the blade and the wound healed up as quickly as nothing, leaving only a faint scar that Dean knew would disappear within the next minute or so. "I was scouting the area."

There was an awkward moment of silence and Dean had actually forgotten after so long that he always had to ask. "And?"

"It is teeming with creatures." Cas didn't seem as disturbed by the news as Dean certainly was. Dean considered this for a moment.

"So why aren't they attacking?" It would seem the most logical thing to do, right? But Castiel shook his head.

"They sense my angel mojo nearby." He smiled drunkenly, which in his case (even when crazy) only translated to a small quirk of the lips. "They're too afraid to attack now. Will probably try by night when they assume I'll be asleep."

Dean looked around the dark forest and took in its shady nooks and the black sky above. "And what exactly is counted as 'night' around here?"

"Don't know." Castiel said lightly. "I guess we get to make our own." He seemed delighted at the concept of 'making up his own nighttime' and started rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet, one hand in his pocket while the other one swung the machete lazily. Dean tried not to roll his eyes as he looked around once more for any signs of danger, "angel mojo" aside.

"Okay." He said, finding nothing and turning back to Cas. "So how do we get out?"

Cas stopped moving and regarded Dean as if _he _was the one that had gone crazy. "We don't. At best we get torn to shreds quickly."

Dean ignored that disturbing little tidbit. "There has to be something. Did you see anything suspicious when scouting? Like, I don't know, a great big hole in the sky or something?" Because hey, anything was possible, right?

Castiel shook his head. Dean rubbed at his eyes and took the machete from Cas, stuffing the bloodied thing back into his coat pocket. He angled himself in a random direction and took a few steps forward.

"Are you coming along or what?" He called over his shoulder and Castiel floundered for a bit before quickly jogging up behind him.

"Dean, what good is this supposed to do?" He asked, sounding very much like a parent trying to reason with their child's odd logic.

"We are getting out of here Cas." Dean replied. "And if we don't, I'm at least not staying here and waiting to die." He paused. "Again."

* * *

They'd had a plan for what to do when they got into SucroCorp. It was a collection of _if_s, _but_s and _maybe_s all relating to whether or not they found Dick and managed to kill him. The problem was that all that planning had only gone so far as the actual death. The victory over the Leviathan was so prioritized and unsure that the moment the theory ended was with winning or losing.

Now Sam didn't know what to do.

Right now Sam was on autopilot, his thoughts only on memories that were flashing through his head as he drove to the nearest motel and absentmindedly paid for a room. Memories of Ellen and Jo and Ash and Pamela and Dad and Bobby and Dean and Cas and even Jessica for a moment. All of them were dead because they had met (or were) the Winchesters and now he was the only one left.

He didn't say anything and only handed the clerk woman a credit card when she asked. She awkwardly completed the booking and deposited a key into his hand before he left the lobby. He walked with slow and sluggish steps to the room but didn't make it in. Instead he slammed against the wall as the grief became too much, and sunk to the floor in fetal position, hands and face resting on his knees as he cried and sobbed and mourned the fact that he was _alone _for the first time in years.

It was several hours before he could get up and collapse onto the motel bed.

"This isn't serving any purpose Dean." Castiel was actually _pouting _and it made Dean want to turn around and chew his crazy friend out like a disobedient child. He restrained himself.

"We're getting out Cas." He repeated once more, and added silently to himself.

_We're finding Sam._

Cas continued to pout but didn't comment any further, and the following silence was broken only by the crunching of leaves beneath their shoes and the subtle but scary titters and growls that came from everywhere and nowhere in Purgatory.

The moon above their heads soon turned a crimson red.

_Edit: Omigosh, finally found the linebreaks! Thank God!_


	2. Unexpected Allies

Sam did not sleep well that night. His thoughts and dreams were all plagued with different solutions to his situation. Among other depressing options, one in particular seemed to stand out, and Sam knew that it was a bad idea.

He'd probably just go to Hell anyway.

When he awoke to the sound of the clock radio playing AC/DCs _Back in Black_, he wondered briefly if he should throw _it_ or _himself_ out the window. It turned out he was too tired and worn out to do either so instead he pressed the snooze button and hauled himself out of bed to shower and brush his teeth. His movements were mechanic, and soon he was packed up and outside of the motel again. The clerk woman from last night was still shooting him worried looks through the window as he drove away, determined to drive and not stop until he found something to do with his life again.

He would not let this stop him. Not after everything.

* * *

They distinguished time by the intervals with which the moon would change color.

Dean awoke for the third time that 'night' to see Castiel in the middle of a fight with several vampires. They were part of the "few" that had risked approaching this odd new aura and Castiel had started neglecting waking him up every time this happened, claiming that he could handle it and that Dean needed his sleep. Dean hadn't minded, really. It wasn't like Cas couldn't protect him from danger, especially now that he seemed to have given up on his 'give 'em anything but hell' attitude.

It was just surprisingly difficult to sleep so close to the sound of cracking skulls.

Dean hoisted himself up on his elbows and watched in tired fascination as Castiel beheaded one after the other of the three vampires. It was two women and a man, lunging viciously and clawing at everything they could reach, completely unconcerned with taking it quietly or attracting bystanders. In Purgatory they forgot everything about society and acted like animals hunting each other. All of them did.

The vampires fell and Dean rose to his feet. "Man, I don't wanna bitch but I just can't sleep with all this noise." Castiel turned around, his trench coat and hospital clothes doused morbidly in crimson, and looked at Dean as though he hadn't realized he was there at all.

"I am sorry to disturb you Dean." And really, if anyone else had said that he would have taken it as sarcasm. "I'm afraid I have no way of stopping the brave from attacking."

"Well then we need to find a safer place." Dean brushed himself off and took out his trusty machete. "We need to find a high point. Somewhere we have the advantage."

"There is a mountain a short distance away from us." Cas casually wiped some blood off his angel blade onto the grass. Dean nodded.

"Think you could, uh" He gestured uselessly. "zap us?"

Castiel nodded once and continued to clean the blood off his clothes. Once he was done he put one hand on Dean's shoulder and Dean closed his eyes, mentally preparing himself for that _lurch._

But nothing happened.

Dean opened his eyes to see a very confused Castiel. The angel was looking at his own hand on Dean's shoulder as though it had personally insulted him.

"It's not working."

Dean nodded. "I can see that. Any reason why?"

Cas let go of Dean and closed his eyes, making that expression that always made Dean want to laugh at him. He opened his eyes and looked at his hands.

"I'm blocked. It's a familiar feeling, last experienced when we went to kill Eve."

And wasn't that just the news of the evening. For the fifth time since they had come here, it sunk in where they actually were. Dean had killed Eve himself. Wouldn't that mean that she came back here?

"Is she here?" He repeated his question aloud. Castiel looked out into thin air for a moment, apparently using some weird angel way of scanning the area.

"No. I don't feel her presence. It could be a Leviathan though."

Not such a better option. But wait. "I thought you couldn't sense those."

Cas was still looking around distractedly. "On earth, I can't. They were too good at hiding their presences when disguised as humans. Down here they are in their true forms and have a much harder time masking their auras."

Dean was worried whether the Leviathan being in their 'true forms' was a good or a bad thing. He was sure it was the latter. "Can Leviathan do that? Block angel mojo?"

"Some Leviathan can; those that have perfected the ability. Eve was actually a mutated Leviathan, without the mouth in particular, but able to produce new creatures. She was what humans would call a 'newer model'."

Dean decided that that was enough with the Creepy Crawlers 101.

"Alright. Human transport method it is then. Do you know which direction the mountain was?" Cas looked at him now and nodded his affirmative. "Then lead the way buddy."

And without any more delay, they set off for a higher point.

* * *

Sam had been driving for six days now.

After leaving the motel he had hit the road, driving in whatever direction it took him. For the first couple days he had only stopped to sleep, sometimes parking the car by the side of a dusty road in the middle of nowhere before falling asleep in the front seat. On the third day he had stopped at a gas station to fill up the tank and stock up on some food. Then he was back on the road again.

He avoided any semblance of civilization, instead opting for dusty roads and secluded forests. Whether he was still in the same state as yesterday didn't matter to him. As he drove, his mind would drift to Bobby's house and Rufus' cabin once in a while and wonder if he shouldn't go back but it never lasted. He quickly banished those thoughts, as it surely meant he would sit down somewhere and not find the motivation to get up again. At least here he was clear minded enough to actually feed himself.

He was on his seventh day of driving when his little grief trip was rudely interrupted.

He was driving though a prairie, Lynyrd Skynyrd's _Poison Whiskey_ playing faintly in the background, when something tiny and moving caught his eye in the distance. It looked like a pinprick of light in the sky, only just bright enough to make a glinting impression over the afternoon sun. Sam squinted, trying to make out the shape when he noticed that it was getting bigger.

Sam realized with a start that it was falling towards the earth, and without thinking sped up the Impala, still looking worriedly at the little falling light.

It fell fast and landed with a giant puff of dust and dirt a short distance away from the road. Sam continued his habit of letting his instincts kick in when in the presence of weird occurrences and stopped the car as close as he could get without driving off the road. The sand cloud that the impact had whipped up was slowly dispersing in the lack of wind, and soon Sam could make up a crater the size of a house radius.

That couldn't be good.

Sam parked the car and climbed out into the heat. He shielded his eyes from the glaring sun with one hand and squinted into the center of the crater. Something dark and human-sized was lying there, right in the center. Sam had his projectile.

For the first time since SucroCorp, Sam wasn't thinking about Dean as he climbed down into the hole and tried as best he could to avoid getting too much dirt in his shoes. He had almost reached the mysterious shape when it moved, startling him, and stood up, revealing it to be a young man.

He was in his late teens with sandy blonde hair and vivid green eyes that were glowing with an otherworldly light. His face was angular and unblemished, giving him the innocent appearance of a little boy. Sam noticed that he was wearing a checkered shirt, much like the one Sam was wearing, concealed mostly by a black overcoat with _way _too many pockets to be rational. Other than that he had faded jeans with artfully placed holes at the knees and a white pair of sneakers.

And really, Sam would be lying if he said he hadn't seen weirder.

The newcomer brushed himself off, no doubt getting dust into every nook and cranny of that complicated jacket, and looked around himself in obvious worry. He didn't seem to notice the man standing a few feet away from him as he looked everywhere but behind him and started mumbling frantically to himself.

"No. This isn't right. It wasn't supposed to be here. He's supposed to have landed here but he didn't and now I've lost him and oh, Azareel is _going to kill me!_"

Sam watched in fascination for a moment before he cleared his throat. The boy spun around so fast that Sam was worried he was going to hurt himself. His eyes widened to a comical size and he looked at Sam as if he had just gone to another planet and encountered an especially interesting specimen of alien. For all Sam knew…

Sam tried to think of something to say but the boy continued to stare at him weirdly, not even stopping to blink for all of _twenty seconds_, and it was kind of distracting. Sam was vaguely reminded of Castiel's odd staring at Dean for long periods of time. He decided to put this undoubtedly awkward moment out of its misery.

"Who are you?" He asked. The boy blinked once.

"Who's asking?" He tried to look suspicious but it came out more like the look of a pouty kitten. Sam resisted the urge to tilt his head to the side.

"I'm Sam." He held his hands up to show that he was unarmed, hoping the boy would take the hint. If he did, he didn't show it.

Instead he narrowed his eyes. "I'm not supposed to converse with humans. It's counterproductive to the mission."

And just like that, Sam's little one man grief trip was over.

* * *

It turned out that "a short distance" to angels meant at least long enough for a whole day's trip. After what Dean could only guess was a few hours they settled down to rest. Dean watched idly as the moon shifted to a dull grey.

Castiel had started climbing a nearby tree as soon as they stopped in order to scout out how much further they would have to travel. It was a little weird to see the angel move so nimbly up into the foliage after only seeing him stand around stiffly and sometimes fighting for so long. In fact the most agile thing Dean had seen Castiel do was toss himself and an enemy out a window once, which was awesome.

There was a rustle of leaves to his left and Dean restrained his reaction to a mere twitch. He would die from the stress if he freaked out over every sound down here. The forest was constantly singing out the titters and sounds of monsters, both humanoid and so much worse, doing everything from crawling beneath their feet to jump between the treetops above their heads. Once in a while there would be a shadow flicking by him or even a pair of eyes glinting in his direction in the bushes.

His left hand hadn't left the folds of his jacket since they started walking, fingers clenching and unclenching over the hilt of his silver knife which he had moved from his boot to his pocket. He pulled it out now and watched as it glimmered in the otherworldly glow of the yellowing moon.

He was sure that the monsters Cas had killed thus far were all going to heal up and start prowling again soon enough. He'd learned a day earlier that in Purgatory, all you gained from a kill was the time to get away.

* * *

"Look," Sam was largely ignored by the boy in favor of looking worriedly around the dusty plains. "What's your name?"

The kid didn't even look at him as he replied. "Gagiel."

"Well that was easier than I thought." Given the earlier comment about humans.

"I figure it's no danger since you'll never see me again and you'll think this is a dream tomorrow." And yes, wouldn't Sam just love to be able to do that?

"Fair enough." He said anyway. "So what are you looking for, Gagiel?" He was spared a look and was shocked to see that the boy looked scared, though he tried his very best to hide it.

"It's none of your business." He said tersely. Sam wasn't scared so easily. This boy might seem human in his demeanor but Sam had seen that before, and only so childishly in one type of creature. He had a feeling that this boy was yet another angel, and that he wasn't as 'used' to earth as any of his brothers and sisters. Something, and don't ask him what, compelled Sam to try and help him.

If only to make his time alone be over.

"Are you an angel?" He winced inwardly as he said that because it really sounded like a pickup line when he said it like that. The reaction was worth it though, as the boy was now looking seriously at him. At least he wasn't just a 'daydreaming human' anymore.

"What makes you say that?" Gagiel looked curious, face betraying nothing of whether his assumption was true or not. That look reminded Sam even more of Castiel when he was faced with human customs and behaviors he didn't understand.

"Let's just say I was a friend of one of your brothers'." Sam tried to smile reassuringly. Gagiel blinked.

"Which one?"

Sam didn't know what to say to that. The last time an angel met Castiel it had been Hester, and that hadn't turned out well. Cas wasn't such a popular angel among the others right now.

"That's not important right now." He took a step closer, happy to see that Gagiel didn't flinch away. "Look, why don't we get in my car and I drive us to the nearest town. Then you can tell me what's wrong." He was already getting a headache from the sun.

"I don't need help." Gagiel was on the defensive again. "I'll find him myself."

And then he blinked out of existence, just as Castiel had done so many times before. Sam couldn't help the pang of sadness in his chest at that. Didn't know why it even was there.

He got back into the Impala and drove off again, unable to think of what to do next.

* * *

Dean looked up at the "mountain" that for the record was about a hundred feet tall. It wasn't exactly Mount Everest but he wasn't complaining. It was a wide mound of rock, making the way up less _steep_ and more _long_ than Dean would have liked. Still, there were ledges big enough to camp on and high enough to defend properly, so they started climbing.

They had barely taken a few steps up the rocky hill when Castiel stopped, eyes flickering over the surroundings and hand diving into the folds of his coat to pull out his angel blade. Dean knew to take a hint and pulled out his own blades, one in each hand. He twirled the knife anxiously as he realised what exactly was wrong.

The place was quiet, and after so long Dean really hated himself for thinking this but it scared him more than the sounds of monsters. Castiel was looking nervous as well and that was never a good sign. Both stood as still as statues, hoping that something, a familiar rustle or otherwise, would betray their silent stalker's location before they struck.

They got their signal, but not in time.

Castiel barely had time to turn around before he was pushed backwards by something Dean couldn't see. Dean was just about so come to the defensive when something solid collided with his head and he stumbled in the other direction. He tried to swing his machete around but something resembling a human hand caught his wrist and _twisted_ making him let go of the weapon with a surprised yell. His attacker pulled him in close to deliver a swift punch to his jaw and then pushed him roughly into the trunk of a nearby tree. The combination left him reeling and gasping for breath while _something _got up close and personal and pinned him to the tree.

He really hoped that Cas was doing better in his fight.

He blinked to try and diffuse some of the black spots in his vision as they made him virtually blind in this dark environment. He jumped at the sound of surprise that was emitted from the body so close to his and somewhere in his mind he remembered that he knew that voice.

"Muttonhead?" Dean finally managed to lift his eyes and widened them at what he saw.

"Gabriel."

Somewhere behind Gabriel, Castiel's happy shouts of surprise could be heard and Dean's eyes flickered to his friend to see him pinning two more people to the ground. Upon closer inspection he recognized Anna and Balthazar. His eyes darted between them and Gabriel's surprised face.

"Well I'll be damned."


End file.
